Lawson earns trip to San Diego

Saturday

Nov 30, 2013 at 8:49 PMNov 30, 2013 at 8:49 PM

The Leader Staff

NEW YORK – Corning freshman Jessica Lawson’s stellar cross country season will continue as her seventh place finish at the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals Saturday has punched her ticket to San Diego in two weeks.

Lawson, the Hawks’ stellar runner who has a state and federation championship to her credit already this season, qualified for the Foot Locker Nationals, to be held Dec. 14 at Morley Park, by completing the 3.1-mile race at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx in 18:03.0.

"I’m really honored and excited to qualify for nationals as a freshman," Lawson said. "I was really nervous before the start of the race. I knew it’d be very competitive."

The Northeast Regional consisted of the top high school runners from Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington D.C. – with the top 10 finishers advancing to Nationals.

"There were about 150-160 runners," said Ray Lawson, the Corning Hawks cross country coach. "It was sunny and about 36 degrees. It was a little chilly for standing around, but it’s a fine running temperature. They had very fast conditions."

The race was won by Waverly, Pa.’s Tessa Barrett, who completed the distance in 17:32.3 – five seconds better than Anoush Shehadeh, from Larchmont, NY. New York was well-represented as Warwick’s Megan Reilly finished sixth (17:49), while Penfield’s Katie Lembo placed ninth (18:03.8).

According to Ray Lawson, Jessica was in about 30th place after the opening mile, then moved to around 25th at the 1.5-mile marker.

"The girls took the first mile out really hard," Jessica Lawson said. "All season, I’ve not been as fast at the start and have had to work my way up over the second half of the race."

That’s just what she did, according to Ray Lawson.

"At a mile-and-a-half, I was telling her she needed to move up," Ray Lawson said. "There was about a mile of rolling hills and she moved well. She came out of the woods with about 1,000 meters to go in 10th place, but had four or five girls just behind her.

"I told her she needed to move up two or three places."

Jessica Lawson responded.

"I kept trying to look at the shoulders of the girl in front of me and I thought that’s the girl I need to beat to move up," Jessica Lawson said. "Every place counted in a race like this. I had to work hard for my place today. I had to pass the girls, they weren’t going to give it to me."

"She had a strong finish, I’m very proud of her," Ray Lawson said. "Her preparation and execution of her race plan has been impressive. She continues to improve. I’m in awe."

On the boy's side, Corning's Sam Chauvin also competed at the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals.

The Hawks senior placed 55th overall with a time of 16:44.1. Henrietta's Mickey Burke won the event with a time of 15:18.8.

Chauvin was the fifth-best finisher from New York State in the field of 171 competitors.